1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications systems, and more particularly, to a system and method for selected audio response in a telecommunications network. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for automatic handling of an unsuccessful telephone call in accordance with particular attributes of the telephone call.
2. Related Art
A first telephone user, hereinafter referred to as a caller, calls a second telephone user, hereinafter referred to as a callee. The caller may encounter an unsuccessful connection, for example, as embodied by a well known busy signal indicating the callee cannot be reached. In one example, the callee may be busy with a current telephone call. In a second example, a switch involved in the path of the telephone call may have reached capacity. This latter example is a result of the provisioning of a finite set of network resources designed to service a predefined load. As such, a typical telecommunications network will encounter unavoidable instances of unsuccessful connections.
Regardless of the reasons behind unsuccessful connections, a telephone company incurs a significant amount of phone call processing that produces no revenue. One solution to this problem is to charge the caller of an unsuccessful connection with a processing fee. This solution, however, remains unattractive due to the public's historical notion that uncompleted calls should not be billed. In other words, the public is unwilling to pay for a service that they perceive as not being used.
Another solution for this revenue generation problem is therefore required. Specifically, what is needed is a revenue generation technique that capitalizes on the frequent occurrence of unsuccessful connections. This revenue generation technique must not rely upon the caller that incurs the phone call processing.